My first short story!
This short story was inspired by my fascination with time travel and also by a website I stumbled across many years ago now that advocated the use of time capsules to ask to be visited by time travellers. It has always stayed with me. I was also inspired by Maggie Stiefvater and the Merry Sisters of Fate and as such, I have named the main character Maggie...
Here it is....
I was sitting in another time travel lecture and today Professor Lewis showed us a time capsule that had been buried in the ground over 1000 years ago. The artefacts pulled out of it were displayed on the screen in front of us. Professor Lewis explained that this was the first time anyone had asked future time travellers to visit them. The writer in question was Luke and he was only a year older than me at 19. The letter was polite yet humorous in parts. He wanted proof that time travel was possible and so he invited us to visit him at our earliest opportunity (that part made me giggle).The slide showed a picture of the time capsule, his letter in full (complete with messy boy handwriting) and a photograph of Luke that was slightly faded at the edges. He had tousled brown hair and deep brown eyes that looked like they could hide many secrets. He was cute!! And interestingly funny. Why couldn’t he exist now?! In my time!! My loneliness burned a hole in my chest where my heart should be.
Professor Lewis quickly moved on from the story and we looked at other slides containing letters from the past but I couldn’t get this boy out of my head. At the end of the lecture, it was question time and so I seized my opportunity to ask about Luke and what had happened to him. Had we visited him after all?
“Unfortunately Maggie we never got a chance to grant his wish, as he died shortly after the request was submitted. Any other questions?” Professor Lewis glanced around the room for potential raised hands but there were none. “Lecture dismissed”.
Whilst the room quickly emptied, I sat there motionless. He was only a year older than me when he died. I never knew him. So why did I feel so sad? Well the answer was glaringly obvious. With the introduction of time travel, death by unnatural causes just simply did not exist anymore because we could prevent it. But nothing could prevent Luke’s death. What was I saying, I was a time traveller. Well a student time traveller to be exact. Of course I could prevent his death! I had access to the machine. I knew the passwords. But God, I would be in so much trouble if I went back to try and prevent his death from happening as it was absolutely forbidden to tamper that far back in the past. There was always a risk that the present as we knew it would cease to exist in its current form. Or that was the tag line they used anyway. I would be hurled into a court of law and tried as a criminal. My life as I know it would be over and I would never time travel again. My dreams would be over before they had even started. I had three options that I could see. I could forget about him, complete my training and realise my dream to be a professional time traveller, go back in time and save him thus ruining my life, or save him and never come back to this time (therefore avoiding all consequence of my actions but giving up my dreams). I decided to sleep on it. I couldn’t believe I was thinking of throwing everything away for a boy I didn’t even know but I was captivated by him and I knew it.
That night, I dreamt of a house on fire. It was pitch black but the horizon was lit up by the burning white house billowing with thick, black smoke. Suddenly I was in the house, searching for something, but I couldn’t remember what I was searching for. I was frantically running around from room to room, looking for something and although I didn’t know what it was, I knew I had to find it. Eventually, the fire spread so far and so quickly that I was beaten back by the flames and had to retreat to the pavement outside. Suddenly, I heard the crack of glass smashing and I ducked as bits of debris flew towards me. A gilded photo frame landed at my feet. I rubbed my eyes and looked closer at the frame. Luke was smiling back at me and I knew it was too late. I woke up screaming.
Here it is....
I was sitting in another time travel lecture and today Professor Lewis showed us a time capsule that had been buried in the ground over 1000 years ago. The artefacts pulled out of it were displayed on the screen in front of us. Professor Lewis explained that this was the first time anyone had asked future time travellers to visit them. The writer in question was Luke and he was only a year older than me at 19. The letter was polite yet humorous in parts. He wanted proof that time travel was possible and so he invited us to visit him at our earliest opportunity (that part made me giggle).The slide showed a picture of the time capsule, his letter in full (complete with messy boy handwriting) and a photograph of Luke that was slightly faded at the edges. He had tousled brown hair and deep brown eyes that looked like they could hide many secrets. He was cute!! And interestingly funny. Why couldn’t he exist now?! In my time!! My loneliness burned a hole in my chest where my heart should be.
Professor Lewis quickly moved on from the story and we looked at other slides containing letters from the past but I couldn’t get this boy out of my head. At the end of the lecture, it was question time and so I seized my opportunity to ask about Luke and what had happened to him. Had we visited him after all?
“Unfortunately Maggie we never got a chance to grant his wish, as he died shortly after the request was submitted. Any other questions?” Professor Lewis glanced around the room for potential raised hands but there were none. “Lecture dismissed”.
Whilst the room quickly emptied, I sat there motionless. He was only a year older than me when he died. I never knew him. So why did I feel so sad? Well the answer was glaringly obvious. With the introduction of time travel, death by unnatural causes just simply did not exist anymore because we could prevent it. But nothing could prevent Luke’s death. What was I saying, I was a time traveller. Well a student time traveller to be exact. Of course I could prevent his death! I had access to the machine. I knew the passwords. But God, I would be in so much trouble if I went back to try and prevent his death from happening as it was absolutely forbidden to tamper that far back in the past. There was always a risk that the present as we knew it would cease to exist in its current form. Or that was the tag line they used anyway. I would be hurled into a court of law and tried as a criminal. My life as I know it would be over and I would never time travel again. My dreams would be over before they had even started. I had three options that I could see. I could forget about him, complete my training and realise my dream to be a professional time traveller, go back in time and save him thus ruining my life, or save him and never come back to this time (therefore avoiding all consequence of my actions but giving up my dreams). I decided to sleep on it. I couldn’t believe I was thinking of throwing everything away for a boy I didn’t even know but I was captivated by him and I knew it.
That night, I dreamt of a house on fire. It was pitch black but the horizon was lit up by the burning white house billowing with thick, black smoke. Suddenly I was in the house, searching for something, but I couldn’t remember what I was searching for. I was frantically running around from room to room, looking for something and although I didn’t know what it was, I knew I had to find it. Eventually, the fire spread so far and so quickly that I was beaten back by the flames and had to retreat to the pavement outside. Suddenly, I heard the crack of glass smashing and I ducked as bits of debris flew towards me. A gilded photo frame landed at my feet. I rubbed my eyes and looked closer at the frame. Luke was smiling back at me and I knew it was too late. I woke up screaming.